In 2014, the Office of the Ombudsman filed cases against him and fellow senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada for allegedly allocating hundreds of millions of pesos of their Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) to fake non-government organizations (NGOs) owned by businessperson Janet Lim-Napoles.

A PDAF or “pork barrel” is a fund which members of the Philippine Congress are meant to use for priority projects.

Revilla was accused of pocketing PHP224 million (US$4,257,505.55) of the fund.

The scandal was made public in 2013 after an expose on Napoles by The Philippine Daily Inquirer. It caught even more media attention when a video showing the extravagant party of Napoles’ daughter went viral online.

Enrile and Estrada were also detained in Camp Crame but were allowed to post bail.